From all that I've heard about Adobe Lightroom it is the software of choice to streamline the process of managing photographs, that it's easier to use than PhotoShop for many things, and that it is well worth the money. At this point I'd be happy if it were one of those things.

I have tools I use to perform many of the tasks required on my computer for post-processing. I'm on a budget, so I use GIMP instead of PhotoShop even though I grew up on the latter and understand it quite well. I've downloaded (nearly a gigabyte) and installed the 30-day trial version of Lightroom ver. 4.4 so I can evaluate whether I want to spend $150 on it.

There is nothing intuitive about it. I tried doing two common things and I've got to seek help on the Web: crop and resize. I tried using it with Canon ZoomBrowser EX to export to Lightroom and it won't let me select the photo (it launches lightroom.exe with the image file as an argument). For example, resizing (or down-sampling) has many tutorials, none of which are shorter than ten pages.

So, can I get some suggestions for tutorials on Lightroom please? I know I'm going to have to put aside more time than I'd thought. But, since I have less than 30 days left on the trial, it's kind of a priority.

Sorry you're having issues because I love Lightroom. One thing to of course to consider is how you are more comfortable working. If GIMP works for you run with it. 90% of my work is in Lightroom and the other 10% is Photoshop. All of my work is imported through Lightroom to cataloge it then almost all of my Public Affairs work is done in Lightroom. Only very special portraits or my Landscape work generally see Photoshop. if you Google Lightroom tutorials there is an amazing amount of Youtube videos and info on Adobe's site as well. I've learned everything off the web and have never bought a book on it, however I have 4 or 5 books for Photoshop.

I think your problem is that you're trying to use Lightroom like it's Photoshop/GIMP... it's not.

On one hand, it's an image library/repository for all of your images. You can keyword and metadata your heart out with it so you can quickly and easily find what you're looking for, and also publish images to web services like Flickr or 500px or whathaveyou.

On another hand, it's an incredibly powerful and quick non-destructive batch photo editor that allows for quick adjustments to be made to a large volume of photos. Any changes made to a single photo can be synchronized with many other photos in a series, which makes things unbelievably fast.

As for cropping or "downsampling" - these are done at two different steps. Cropping is done from the Develop module, and "downsampling" is done during the Export process. Like I mentioned before, all editing in LR is non-destructive, and therefore any changes made are only applied to an exported file derived from the source. You can make twenty virtual copies of the same file and have twenty different edits that you can export, but they can all be based on the same source photo.

I will second Mike's comments about Googling LR tutorials... YouTube has an incredible amount of high-quality tutorials out there... I watched a number of videos from Jared Polin and Zack Arias back in the day when I was first learning about workflow (I don't have links on-hand right now but they aren't hard to find).

For what it's worth, 20% of my workflow is in Photomechanic (culling), 75% is in Lightroom, and 5% is in Photoshop. I hate PS. I avoid it like the plauge, because it's a slow process to individually edit a photo and I want to get the editing over with ASAP... which is why I love LR.

Some quick Hotkey tips...

Hit "D" to enter the develop module to edit a selected photoSpacebar zooms in on the photo"G" returns to the Library GridHit "R" to bring up the crop toolWhile in crop mode, hit "X" to switch the crop between portrait and landscape orientationTapping "L" twice will blank out all of the panels in whatever mode you're in and only your photo will be visible. Hit "L" again to bring everything back.Hit "Tab" to close or open all of the panels in whatever module you're using... helpful if you're editing on a small screen or you want less distraction.

And another thing... create Export presets... you might have to Google it, but it's well worth it and helps speed things up a LOT.

Also, a quick outline of my workflow, so you understand where LR fits in:

Shoot --> Open Photomechanic --> Ingest/Download Card(s) --> Rate 4-5 stars for keepers --> Rename Keepers and move to new folder --> Open LR --> Synchronize new folder to Library and render standard previews with a basic custom preset --> Walk away for a few hours sometimes while it does its thing --> Make tweaks to processing of each image/crop/general editing/basic touchups/lens corrections/BW conversions in LR --> (optional, open a few images in PS for heavier retouching) --> Export from LR as JPGs for web/print

Cropping and resizing are the two things that Lightroom can do that I prefer to do in Photoshop. (I own both, obviously.) But I'm really anal about cropping/resizing to specific pixel dimensions (multiples of four. e.g. crop to 2304x4096 then resize to 576x1024).

I import from card using LR. I brows the previews and untick any images I don't want to import. When I start the import my import preset will automatically create a folder (name by date), import the RAW files, rename them, add the keyword "To Do", apply a standard Development preset and colour them all green - I set RAW files to green and any image files (jpeg, tiff, psd) to red for quick identification.

Next it is cropping and any image specific adjustment. Then export to jpeg - unless I need to do something which requires Photoshop elements (cloning, layers etc). So far I have used PSE once this year.